Brown's Daily Word 9-9-08

Good Morning,
In the light of blatant and brutal persecution of Christians in Orissa India I am reflecting on the lives and the testimonies of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, as recorded in the book of Daniel. I am also enclosing some of the lead stories from Orissa, India at end of this devotion. Please take some tome to read and pray for the persecuted Christians.
The story of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego was painted in the catacombs by believers persecuted by the Romans and has been an inspiration to all who have been oppressed. It is a story of rugged faith and uncompromising faithfulness to God. We first meet Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego in chapter 1 where, as colleagues of Daniel, they refused to defile themselves with tainted royal food and wine. Now their commitment was again to be challenged. Perhaps this tells us that one spiritual victory is not the end. Every day we may be tempted to deny the Lord whom we love and serve. We can find help and encouragement in focusing our attention upon these brave men who honored the Lord in their time of fierce testing.
Proud King Nebuchadnezzar had set up a golden image. It was a huge monument, 90 feet high and 9 feet wide. Everyone must conform. All the high officials of the Babylonian empire had been summoned to the dedication ceremony, a great orchestra was raising the emotional temperature. But here at Nebuchadnezzar’s big occasion there was also fear, for evil was in the air. I wonder where Daniel was? For some reason not recorded he was not present - perhaps he was absent on a state mission. I expect his three friends missed him terribly - they were on their own. They had to make their own stand without the guidance of their acknowledged leader. It is good to have senior friends in the Lord but we must not be over-dependent on them for we never know if a situation will arise when they are not there to help. The scene was set for a great cultural and religious spectacle. Yet there was something sinister about it because, as a last resort, Nebuchadnezzar had imposed the sanction of death by the fiery furnace to deal with a possible lunatic fringe of anti-social cranks. The pride of the ruthless dictator would tolerate no opposition, for refusal to obey would be an affront to Nebuchadnezzar’s dignity and an insult to his god. This was a challenge the three young men simply had to face; it was a problem that would not go away. A choice had to be made there and then. Choices have to be made by all of us at some time. The poet James Russell Lowell put it like this, "Once to every man and nation comes the moment to decide; Some great cause, God’s new Messiah, offering each the bloom or blight; Parts the goats upon the left hand, and the sheep upon the right; And the choice goes by for ever, ’twixt that darkness and that light." Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego refused to bow down to the gigantic statue. They refused to renounce God and his commands. They refused to follow the crowd. They were determined to stand out against this evil thing and to be faithful to the Lord at any cost. Here was courage of the highest order, for they were prepared to face a fearful death rather than dishonor their God. But the story does not end there because the Biblical account tells us that Nebuchadnezzar offered them a second chance. Nebuchadnezzar ordered the rebels to be brought before him. He recognized them as the Jews he had recently honored and was prepared to give them the benefit of a doubt in his mind that they had made a mistake. He assumed that it could not possibly be their deliberate intention to defy him and so he would give them a second opportunity to conform. What a temptation! In a multi-faith society, surely it is reasonable just to bend the joints of your knees as an appropriate act of respect for the king’s wishes? Why not just go along with it and humor him? Surely it would be seen as ungrateful to publicly oppose him after he had showed such kindness? In any case, we can almost hear the tempter whispering in their ears, "it’s a long way from Jerusalem"! As Spurgeon said, "character is what you are in the dark". Yes, it is easy to compromise - on morality, honesty, faithfulness to the Scriptures - to cut a few corners. But Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego would have none of it. With great courage and dignity they told the king that they were not going to argue with him. The three young men made no attempt to excuse themselves. They refused to save their situation at the expense of their consciences; they were prepared to defy their king rather than offend their God. It took courage to stand out, to be among the three out of, say 300,000, who refused to bow the knee and yet this is a marked characteristic of the faithful. God’s people are not called upon to go out of their way to be martyrs, but they have to be ready to make their stand if need be. Nebuchnezzar threw down the challenge, "Who is the God that shall deliver you out of my hands?" They made a classic reply, "The God we serve is able to deliver us from the fire, and will rescue us from your hand, O king" (17). God was their God, and they were his. They felt secure for their hope was based on a deep covenant and personal relationship. Their faith in their God was so strong that they could not imagine any ultimate harm at all coming to them at the hand of a mere pagan emperor. How could God possibly forsake those who are his? The faith of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego was unquestioning; their God was omnipotent. Flames and kings meant nothing to Him; He could deliver. They based their confidence on their trust in God. Had He not delivered the Israelites from Pharoah’s clutches and provided for them throughout their forty years in the wilderness? Had he not fed Elijah in a time of famine and drought? When we’re up against it, we need to recall these wonderful deeds of our God. He has not changed. This is the kind of knowledge that builds up faith for the day of testing. The young men also had confidence in the purposes of God. Here we have some magnificent words, "Our God can deliver, but if not..." (18). What they are saying is this: "God can deliver, and if it is his will, he will deliver us - but he may not! It may be his will to let us suffer and die. We do not know what his will is, and we do not mind, for his will is best." What a statement to make! They felt that loyalty to God was of greater importance than life itself. One of the bishops in the century following the church of New Testament times had a similar experience. Polycarp, the bishop of Smyrna, was brought before the Roman authorities and told to curse Christ and he would be released. He replied, "Eighty-six years have I served him, and he has done me no wrong: how then can I blaspheme my king who saved me?" The Roman officer replied, "Unless you change your mind, I will have you burnt." Polycarp said, "You threaten a fire that burns for an hour, and after a while is quenched; for you are ignorant of the judgement to come and of everlasting punishment reserved for the ungodly. Do what you wish." We know that God is able to save. He is able to heal. He is able to deliver from temptation. He is able ... but we have a God who may not save. This is a hard saying, and yet faith in God is more important than faith in his works. Ultimately, faith must rest in the character of God irrespective of what he does or does not do. This story from the book of Daniel is an important reminder that faithfulness to God may result in problems. Refusal to conform to this world’s pattern may well involve trouble and loss, but surely it is better to accept the narrow way that leads to eternal gain rather than follow the way of the world which will result in eternal loss? True faith is a readiness to trust God to fulfil his purposes whatever that might be, and to say, as Job did, "though he slay me, yet I will trust him" (13:15). The steadfast refusal of the young men made the king furious, and he commanded the furnace to be heated again and again, and they were thrown into the fire. What a terrible experience! Yet, what a wonderful experience it turned out to be. The three young men were in the fire, but they were not alone, for the Lord was there with them. Nebuchadnezzar was filled with amazement. He could hardly believe what he saw. He had expected their bound bodies to be incinerated within seconds but, to his astonishment, in the middle of the blazing flames men were walking up and down, unhurt by the fire and quite unaffected by their fearful surroundings. He could hardly believe his eyes and had to seek confirmation from his ministers that it was only three men that had been cast into the fire. He looked again. "Look, I see four men walking around in the fire, unbound and unharmed, and the fourth looks like a son of the gods." One thing is perfectly clear - if God had not delivered his servants from the fire, he had delivered them in the fire. For their sake he had deliberately suspended his natural laws and had performed a miracle. Further, in the hour of his people’s trial, he had strengthened their commitment by his presence in a physical form. The Lord was with them in their fiery trial. If God is omnipresent, he must also be the God in the midst of our burning fiery furnace, whatever form that might take. God is omnipresent in pain and his presence makes faith possible. C S Lewis said, "God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our consciences, but shouts in our pains." Nebuchadnezzar openly acknowledged that the three young Jews were "servants of the Most High God" and he called on them to come out of the furnace. They emerged from the fire completely unscathed. Not a hair had been singed and there was not even a smell of fire on their clothes. The king and his courtiers were amazed. The message is clear. Believers need to grow in the grace of God so that when they are faced with a challenge to faith there will be no compromise on Christian principles. Yet, when the fire of pain, disappointment or disillusionment comes, God will be with us for the God of deliverance is also the Lord of the furnace.
In Jesus,
Brown
Lead story - Tuesday September 09, 2008
INDIA: INCIDENTS IN TWO STATES SHAKE CHRISTIANS
With Orissa still reeling, violence in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh shocks believers.
NEW DELHI, September 8 (Compass Direct News) – Still reeling from violence in Orissa state, India’s Christians suffered major blows in two other states over the weekend.
As the Global Council of Indian Christians (GCIC) revised its estimate of deaths from the last two weeks of violence in Orissa state from “more than 100” to 53 today, Christians in Ratlam, Madhya Pradesh were shocked when suspected Hindu extremists yesterday burned down the 86-year-old St. Bartholomew Church of North India.
Christian leaders said suspected members of the Bajrang Dal and Vishwa Hindu Parishad (World Hindu Council or VHP) burned down the venerable church after parishioners had elaborately decorated it for its 86th anniversary. VHP members are also responsible for ongoing violence in Orissa state following the killing of a state VHP leader, Laxmanananda Saraswati, and four of his associates in Kandhamal district on August 23.
Thousands of houses, churches and institutions have been damaged or destroyed in the violence that began after VHP members led a funeral procession of Saraswati’s body to stir up anti-Christian sentiment. Maoists have since claimed responsibility for the murders, but the Hindu extremist groups continue to blame Christians.
Damages to the St. Bartholomew church building in Ratlam were estimated at US$18,000. It was the only English-language church in the district, with most of its members senior citizens and retired railway employees.
VHP and Bajrang Dal leaders have denied the allegations against them, claiming the church building caught fire due to a short circuit. But local Christians said a short circuit could not have led to a fire of the more than five hours needed to burn down the entire structure.
“The entire episode was planned and carried out by the VHP and Bajrang Dal,” Lalu Stephen, district president of the Madhya Pradesh Isai Mahasangh, an umbrella body of Christian organizations, said in a statement. “We have no doubt about their involvement in the entire episode.”
The investigating officer in Ratlam, Manish Agarwal, said police are investigating the church building fire and do not know whether the VHP or Bajrang Dal are involved.
Christians were further stunned when police presented the watchman of the church, Noel Pare, before media late at night accepting blame for the crime. The mother of the watchman, Rosy Pare, subsequently stated in an affidavit that her son, daughter-in-law and grandchild were sleeping at home when the incident took place.
She further said in the legal document that it was police who woke Noel Pare to inform him that the church was on fire. Pare, along with his wife, was taken to the police station for questioning, with his wife later released. After a few hours, local Christian leaders were called to the police station to be told that the watchman had accepted responsibility for the crime.
Rosy Pare claimed that police concocted the scheme to protect the real culprits.
Father Anand Muttungal of the Madhya Pradesh Catholic Bishops Conference of India said the conference will set up an independent committee headed by a retired High Court judge to include journalists, social activists and leaders from various religions to investigate.
“The members will be declared soon,” he said. “Police are trying to save the culprits and put the blame on the Christian community. We will not tolerate this attempt by the police.”
According to the police’s own report, at least 200 liters of kerosene were used to burn the church building.
“It cannot be the work of one man only,” Fr. Muttungal told Compass. “Clearly the police are trying to hide the facts here. The arrest of the church watchman is an attempt to malign the community. Every time it is done, and this time it was planned.”
Hindu extremists have a history of violence in the area. Most recently, on August 15, VHP and Bajrang Dal members attacked a youth meeting in Ratlam after a neighbor complained, said pastor Jose Mathew of Ratlam.
“They beat up many participants,” including a pastor, his wife and the district manager of World Vision, Mathew said. “Later the police without any enquiry charged them with attempted forcible conversion.”
Nuns Assaulted
In Chhattisgarh state, on Friday (September 5) about 20 Bajrang Dal extremists boarded a train at the Durgh railway station and took four babies no more than 2 years old from two nuns of the Missionaries of Charity and from two women helpers. Subsequently the Hindu extremists beat a nun and a driver sent to help.
The nuns and two women helpers on the train were taking the babies from Raipur to the Shishu Bhava charity center in Bhopal when the Hindu extremists forced their way into the train shouting anti-Christian slogans. Christian sources said the extremists snatched the babies and left the train, with the nuns compelled to come after them.
Accusing the nuns of forced conversion, the Hindu extremist mob handed them over to the Government Railway Police (GRP). When one of the two sisters, identified as Sister Mamta, requested that she be allowed to make a phone call to get legal help, police flatly refused. After much pleading she was able to make a phone call to the archbishop from the mobile phone of a visiting officer.
The archbishop promptly sent two nuns in an ambulance along with a driver to the Durgh railway station to assist the nuns. But before they could reach the station, they were sighted and surrounded by the Bajrang Dal mob outside the railway station.
One of the arriving nuns, identified as Sister Laboure, and the driver of the ambulance were mercilessly beaten in public view by the mob. The Hindu extremists continued to shout anti-Christian slogans even as they were beating and threatening to kill the nun and driver.
Subsequently the GRP took the two arriving nuns and the driver into custody, and they were kept in the police station for five hours, with the wounds and other injuries of Sister Laboure and the driver unattended. The next morning police escorted the nuns to their respective convents. Reportedly Sister Laboure was later admitted in a hospital for treatment of her injuries.
The babies were not returned to the nuns but rather taken to a government hospital, where they remained at press time.
Fr. Muttungal said local newspaper Hari Bhoomi later covered the incident of the beating “and used very derogatory language, which is quite insensitive.”
In Orissa state, the GCIC confirmed that on August 25 VHP extremists killed three Christians at a place known as Jarginaju: Pastor Fitham Nayak, 62; Madan Nayak, 62; and Nathura Nayak, 60. The GCIC reported that before killing them, the Hindu extremists asked them to reconvert to Hinduism, killing them when they refused.
Karnataka
In Karnataka state, Christians leaders reported that about 30 attackers on motorcycles and in an SUV stormed into a church served yesterday and abducted pastor R. Babu.
After disrupting the service in Mulbagal, Kolar district by tearing up Bibles, hymnals and curtains and beating church members, the attackers carried Pastor Babu to a temple about five kilometers (three miles) away and forced him to observe Hindu rituals.
They released him only after he gave a written declaration in front of the police at Mulbagal police station stating that he would not go back to the village or continue any church activities.
Orissa Burning
The sinister Anti-Christian pogrom in Orissa. What the mainstream media isn't telling you about ongoing torture and killing of Christians there.
Thursday, September 4, 2008

"'Father They Are Going to Burn Me": Rajni's Last Words
Rajni' Death is a Deep Wound in my Heart
Fr. Edward, Survivor of Arson in Orissa Recalls How Rajni Was Burnt to Death
Fr. Edward Sequeira SVD
Fr Edward Sequeira, one of the victims of the violence committed by Hindu radicals in Orissa, does not hesitate to call them "terrorists". Groups connected to Sangh Parivar seized him, beat him for more than an hour, and then shut him inside a room that they set on fire. Fr Edward was able to save himself by taking shelter in the bathroom. Before he passed out, he heard the screams of Rajni Majh, who was tied up and thrown into the flames, where she was burned to death.Initial reports said that she was a sister, then a lay missionary. Fr Edward explains that the girl was one of the many orphans he had rescued, and that she lived and worked in the orphanage he had founded.Fr Edward is unable to hold back the tears, and begins sobbing when he talks about her. The crowd of fanatics may have thought that Rajni was one of the many people they believe have been forced to convert through "Christian proselytism". "'She was only a simple Hindu girl", the priest says, "studying in the plus 3 class. I can still hear her voice, 'Father they are going to burn me', these were her last words to me, after this I lost consciousness". Her death "is a deep wound in my heart".Hindu fundamentalists have long been conducting a campaign against conversions to Christianity, and against evangelization. For Fr Edward, 58, missionary activity is something that upholds the dignity of the person. He spoke to Asianews:
"I have been working among lepers in Padampur in Bargarh district for the past ten years. I realized that, given the preference for a male child in rural Indian communities, parents many times have more than 4-5 daughters before a son is born - and unfortunately, these girls are rarely sent to school, they are made to graze cattle or even sent at early age as domestic workers or to the landlords, and many girls suffer from malnutrition."So I started a very small hostel-orphanage for girls, to give them opportunity and dignity through education and vocational training."One such girl in my orphanage was Rajni Majhi, who was born to Hindu parents who already had 5 or 6 daughters, and they gave her up for adoption to a Hindu tribal childless couple. Sadly, when the adopted parents after a few years conceived biological children, they began ill-treating and discriminating against Rajni, and in this reality she came to my orphanage four years ago. Within a few months, she was bubbling with life, the younger girls called her “Nanni’ (big sister), and besides studying in college in her 13th year, Rajni would be like a governess to the children."All the development programmes for these leprosy patients and the other dalits have all been for Hindus. More than 25 years I have worked in Orissa, and not a single person have I converted to Christianity".Hatred of Christianity and personal development is what drives radical Hindu groups to try to wipe out the presence of Christians and their institutions. "Who says that terrorists are only those who plant bombs and carry guns? This was a terrorist attack on Orissa. What about these Sangh Parivar members, who have been given the license to kill, destroy and plunder their fellow citizens? This was sheer terrorism unleashed on the Christians in Kandhmal district".Fr Edward explains what happened to him: "On Monday August 25th, around 1.30 pm, as I was having lunch, there was a knock on the door. When I opened it, a huge crowd of more than 500 people were outside and asked 'Who is the priest?'. This is nothing strange, as often people come requesting my help, for my vehicle to drive them to a hospital or other such emergencies. As soon as I identified myself, they raised their arms holding all the weapons - axes, shovels, spades and iron rods.They took me outside in the courtyard and began hitting me, screaming abuses at Christianity and shouting 'Bajrang Bali Ki Jai; Yesu Christi Murdabada; Hail Lord Hanuman (editor's note: a Hindu god with the face of a monkey), destroy, eliminate Jesus Christ', beating me on my head, back, all over my body."The extremists thrashed me for nearly an hour (editor's note: Fr Edward still has bruises all over his body, and five wounds on his back)."Then they entered my room, collected all the clothes and books and whatever they laid their hands on and piled it in the centre of the room, threw some kerosene on the pile, and some crude oil, and threw some gelatine sticks which they had brought with them and lit the fire and threw me into the flames and locked the door from the outside."Somehow, I was not frightened, there was definitely the divine presence in the burning room, and I went into the bathroom and locked myself in and shut all the windows. The whole room was engulfed in thick smoke and flames."The attackers were shouting Bajrang Bali Ki Jai; Yesu Christi Murdabada, and hurling abuses. They went to the garage and burned the vehicle, I could hear some of them on the roof setting fire from the top. Thick smoke was in the bathroom, where I was hiding, it was dark and full of thick smoke, and as I inhaled the smoke my only concern was for the children.
Rajni Majhi Who Was Thrown into the Fire by the Mob"In the meanwhile, the children and Rajni, who witnessed the mob assaulting me, took the children inside their own orphanage room which is next to mine and bolted the door from the inside. The men who had climbed onto the roof entered the room and dragged Rajni outside with the children - some of the children escaped. They brought her outside my bathroom window. I could hear the cries of Rajni, and the mob was cheering and shouting through the window. These criminals tied her hands together - they made a huge bonfire in the orphanage room and threw her onto the fire. They used sickles, shovels and other weapons to prevent her from running away, these extremists did not allow her to even move from the burning flames".See Separate Story: How 20 Year Old Rajni Was Burnt to Death by a Cheering Mob
Posted by Orissa Burning at 7:23 PM
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